And then the tunnel filled with noise, a roaring sound with death in it. The man who’d grabbed the gun executed a practiced roll, got to his feet, and shot the tranquilizer dart straight at the giant tiger that hurtled in from the darkness end of the tunnel.
The tiger was so big that he broke off pieces off the wall as he charged. The dart hit Tiger in the chest . . .
. . . and didn’t slow him a step. The rage in Tiger’s eyes escalated to madness as he kept on coming.
The man trying to contain Broderick dropped the net and fled. The first gunman squirmed out from behind Ellison and ran up the tunnel toward daylight, staggering and cradling his broken arm.
The man who’d shot the tranq at Tiger stood frozen in stark terror. Tiger was going to kill him.
Tiger had killed once before, Ellison knew, though the Shifters were keeping it quiet. Not Tiger’s fault, Liam had said. Human scientists had created Tiger to be a killing machine, and Tiger didn’t yet know how not to be.
But if Tiger were arrested for killing a human, the Shifter Bureau might find out who Tiger was and what he was, and take him away. Back to a lab, or maybe they’d just outright slaughter him. And Liam and the rest of Shiftertown would pay for harboring him.
Ellison morphed back to his human self, landing panting, upright on his feet. “Run, you idiot,” he said to the remaining man. “I can’t stop him.”
The human remained rooted in place, staring in horrified wonder as Tiger unfolded from the giant Bengal and became a giant human, his eyes still yellow with fury. The dart stuck out of Tiger’s muscled chest, and Tiger contemptuously yanked it out.
“Leave. The cub. Alone.” The words were guttural, harsh, inhuman.
The man blinked, gulped a breath, and finally turned to flee. Ellison grabbed the tranq rifle out of the man’s hands as he ran by. Ellison raced after him but stopped inside the shadows of the culvert while the man sprinted after his friends into the bright light of morning.
Ellison watched him scramble into a waiting high-end SUV, a cage obvious in the back. The vehicle squealed away, leaving the faint bite of exhaust in the warm spring breeze.
Tiger ran a few steps past Ellison and stopped, not bothering to keep his large, naked body out of the sunlight. “You let them go.” He turned back and bent his angry gaze on Ellison. “They were going to hurt the cub.”
“No, they were going to steal the cub,” Ellison said. He leaned against the cool tunnel wall to catch his breath. “I don’t know what that’s about.”
“I would have killed them first.”
“I know.” Ellison gathered his courage and reached to place his hand on Tiger’s formidable bicep. “If you’d killed any of them, hell would rain down on Shifters, and you’d be captured, and possibly killed and dissected. Connor’s trusting me to keep you out of trouble, remember?”
Tiger jerked away from Ellison’s touch. “They can’t hurt the cubs.”
Tiger was ferociously protective of all cubs—he’d lost the only one of his own, the humans wrenching it away from him before he could properly know it or say good-bye. Liam speculated that he transferred that grief into being crazily protective of the cubs in Shiftertown.
Ellison shared that obsessive protectiveness—most Shifters had it—but Tiger took it over the top.
“Trust me, big guy, there are other ways,” Ellison said. “We have their equipment, and I got a good look at them and their SUV. We’ll find them and persuade them it’s a bad idea to mess with us. Kidnapping Shifters is against human law too, and Kim knows cops who are sympathetic to Shifters. We’ll get them.”
Tiger looked unconvinced. But at least he turned away and went back into the tunnel.
Broderick was just finishing fighting his way out of the net. “Bastards, fucking bastards. Why didn’t you kill them?”
Ellison didn’t bother explaining a second time. “Where’s Maria?”
Olaf, still a bear, was dancing around, growling and beating the air, doing a little victory hop as though he’d chased off the bad guys single-handedly. The joys of being a cub.
“Maria is safe,” Tiger said.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Maria’s voice came up the tunnel. “Olaf? Is Olaf all right? What is happening?”
Maria followed her voice, her words dying as she ran into the light of the LED lanterns and found herself facing three large, naked Shifters and one cavorting polar bear cub.
Ellison watched her expression turn from concern for Olaf to shock at the three tall Shifters with animal rage in their eyes, and then dissolve to stark, remembered terror. He’d seen the same look on Deni’s face last night when she hadn’t recognized Ellison, her own brother. Maria was reliving a moment of her captivity.
She shook it off in the next second, grabbed Olaf by the scruff, and started dragging him back down the tunnel the way she’d come. The little bear dug in his feet in and wailed in protest, but Maria was relentless.
The heightened senses of Ellison’s wolf felt her grief and fear, her fight for sanity. He wanted to find the Shifters who’d hurt Maria and grind them to powder.
He motioned for the other two to stay back, and ran down the tunnel after her.
Chapter Six
Maria didn’t stop when she heard Ellison calling her name. She continued walking swiftly, pulling Olaf with her. The bear still protested, but he’d quit fighting her, seeming to understand that she’d won.
Maria didn’t halt until she reached the sunlight and the spot where she’d dropped her big shoulder bag to go running inside after Olaf. She leaned against the stone wall outside the culvert, absorbing the warmth of the concrete, and closed her eyes.
Her heart still raced in panic, her breath choking her. She knew, logically, that the Shifters inside the tunnels were her friends—except maybe Broderick—not the evil beasts who’d imprisoned her.
Even Broderick followed Shifter rules whether he liked them or not. He and the other Austin Shifters understood that they had to curb their feral tendencies in order to survive. Miguel and his pack hadn’t.
“Maria.”
Ellison was there, in front of her. He’d resumed his jeans, but he held his shirt crumpled in one hand.
In spite of her shakes, Maria couldn’t help reflecting that Ellison was breathtaking. His jeans rode low on his hips, his liquid, tanned skin smooth over a hard body. A few red abrasions decorated his chest, and he had a solid bruise on his cheek. The worst wound was around his neck, where the Collar had burned his skin.
Her visions of the feral Shifters dissolved as concern replaced fear. “Are you all right?” Maria reached up and touched his Collar. The black and silver entwined metal was cool under her fingertips, but she knew it had been hot and painful a few moments ago.
Ellison’s gray eyes went quiet under her touch, his gaze fixing sharply on her. “Yeah, I’m OK. What about you?”
Ellison always mitigated his alpha wolf stare for Maria, but even so, it was hard to take. Maria abruptly pulled her hand away. “I need to go home.”
After a few more beats of stare, Ellison picked up the bag she’d left on the ground. “Come on then.” He put his hand on her shoulder and steered her toward the path that would lead them back to the park. “Tiger’s going to sit on Broderick a while, so you don’t need to worry about him.”
“I’m not.” Maria couldn’t explain what she felt, words leaving her, so she just walked.
Having Ellison next to her, warm and tall, comforted her beyond what she could think. His hand on her shoulder held strength, but gentled for her as usual, to reassure rather than frighten.
When Maria had rushed into the culvert, worry for Olaf overriding her fears, Ellison had just finished shifting. His naked body had been beautiful, with the fire of the wolf still in his eyes. Now he was Ellison again, soothing her, helping her.
Olaf, as a bear cub, scampered ahead of them then ran back, circling their legs, enjoying himself. His clothes and things were in Maria’s ba
g, but Olaf showed no sign of wanting to change back to a human boy.
They walked back across the ridge and down to the park, Ellison’s hand steadying her. A few humans they passed did a double-take at the polar bear cub romping after butterflies, though most people who used this park knew that it lay close to Shiftertown and had grown used to Maria walking with cubs out here.
Ellison was silent as they wound through the park and walked down the few blocks to Shiftertown. Olaf ran ahead of them through the open gates. He spied another cub in a yard down the street and charged to him, the little wolf rising to meet him.
Maria started a few steps after Olaf, but a Shifter woman came out onto her porch, laughing at the two cubs, and calling a greeting to Olaf. Everyone knew Olaf, and everyone liked him. Olaf and the wolf started a mock wrestling match, Olaf none the worse for his ordeal.
Ellison pulled Maria to a halt in the shade of a tall live oak, the tree screening them from most of the houses. His fingers were warm on her shoulder, but firm. He wanted her to stay there.
“You had a flashback in that culvert, didn’t you?” Ellison watched her, knowing the truth, but willing her to tell him.
Maria evaded his gaze. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I think you need to talk about it a little.” Ellison touched her chin. “You know you don’t need to be afraid anymore, Maria. No one will hurt you, or make you do anything you don’t want to. And not just because the Morrisseys say so. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I’ll break all their fingers if they even try.”
He meant it. She’d seen how he’d been with Broderick last night—ready to kill the other wolf. But Maria could never know what to say to Ellison when he was being gentle and helpful. The only thing she could think of was, “You are all so kind to me.”
“Hey, it’s not kindness, sweetheart. At least not from me.” Ellison’s touch went to her cheek, the caress light.
Warmth spread down through her chest. Maria tried to speak, to explain, but her lips couldn’t form the words. She still struggled to think in English, and Ellison didn’t know much Spanish.
“You’re here, Maria. Safe.” Ellison traced her cheek, increasing the warmth. “Not in the dark anymore. You don’t need to be afraid. And if you are afraid, you come to me.”
Maria managed a smile. “And you’ll make it all better?”
“I want to.”
He leaned closer, and Maria’s back met the bole of the big tree. Ellison smelled of sweat and a small bite of blood, and of himself. The feral Shifters—all of them—had always stank. Ellison smelled of warmth and goodness.
Maria turned her face up to him, rising on tiptoe to offer the kiss she wanted to give him. She couldn’t think of words, but she could show him with this.
She found herself caught hard against Ellison’s bare chest, his hand snaking under her braid, he leaning into her. His mouth fit clumsily to hers, his lips moving before Maria was ready. Their teeth bumped, and Ellison lifted away, laughing a little, his eyes full of heat.
“Shifters don’t kiss much,” he said. “At least, I don’t.”
There hadn’t been much kissing in the feral pack either. No tenderness, not even between the males and females who’d cared for each other.
“Nuzzling, yes.” Ellison leaned to her again, his nose touching her cheek, his breath warm. “I guess when you have a lot of nose, you tend to use it.”
Maria wanted to laugh. No, not to laugh. To go quiet while he nuzzled her cheekbone.
“I never kissed much either,” she said. When Luis had wooed her in the moonlight, before she’d known he was a Shifter, she hadn’t kissed him.
This was new to her, as was Ellison’s gentleness. Luis had charmed her with his dangerousness, exciting to a naive and sheltered young woman like Maria. Ellison mitigated his strength for her, showing her he’d never let loose and hurt her.
“We can learn together,” Ellison said, breath against her lips.
Maria formed an unpracticed pucker, her blood warming as Ellison responded with light pressure. His hand, shirt still dangling from it, went to the tree, his lips firming against her mouth.
Maria felt the strength of his entire body through the kiss, like a hum in the air between them as Ellison licked softly across her lips. She tasted salt and coffee on him, and a bite of himself.
She clenched her hands at her sides. She could barely breathe, nothing existing but Ellison’s lips connecting with hers, his mouth tenderly prying hers open, his fingers working under her braid, loosening it.
Another kiss, another slide of his tongue between her lips. Maria flicked her tongue over his in answer, the velvet heat of it stealing her breath.
She should be afraid. She’d been afraid for such a long time. Ellison stood over her, his body against hers, pinning her with his mouth, his presence, himself. Maria should be afraid and want to duck away from him, to run, but she stayed, letting her hand steal to his chest.
She warmed as she contacted the smooth heat of his bare skin, the wiry curls that dusted his chest. She found his heartbeat, his heart drumming as rapidly as hers.
Maria slid her hand up to his neck, feeling the Collar around his throat, the raw skin it had burned. He’d been hurt, while he’d fought for Olaf, but he hadn’t stopped until Olaf was safe. She didn’t understand the whole story of what had happened inside the culvert, but she was too full of Ellison’s taste and warmth to break away and ask.
He laced his fingers through her hair, caressing her neck as he deepened the kiss. Heat, sunlight, everything that was good and warm—Ellison.
Ellison slid his hand down her neck to her back, the other still supporting him against the tree, the softness of his dangling shirt brushing her shoulder. Maria leaned into his embrace, the sweetness of his kiss unknotting her stomach. She flowed into comfort, into wanting.
A small growl sounded, then air whooshed by her. Ellison broke the kiss, his legs bending as the whirlwind of Olaf smacked the backs of his knees.
“Hey.” Ellison turned around, his big hand still steady against Maria. He’d never let her fall.
Olaf shook himself like a dog and rose up into the form of a small boy with white hair and dark eyes. “I’m hungry!”
Maria sucked in a breath, the taste of Ellison lingering and heady. “You already had breakfast, Olaf.”
“But I want pancakes. Can we go see Sean? Where’s Tiger?”
Olaf rarely spoke much—the poor kid had watched his parents be shot to death. To have three or four sentences in a row come out of his mouth was unusual.
“Tiger’s walking Broderick home,” Ellison said. He straightened up from the tree, but he didn’t take his arm from around Maria. “We’ll walk with Maria to Sean’s house and hit him up for pancakes. All right?”
“Yay!” Olaf grabbed Maria’s hand. “Were those men trying to kidnap me, Uncle Ellison?”
“Kidnap?” Maria’s eyes widened, some of the warmth evaporating. “What happened?”
“Some men tried to grab me. I smacked them.” Olaf danced back, swatting with his hands as he would his bear paws.
Ellison looked grim. “Guys in an expensive SUV,” he said. “Their tranq gun was top of the line too.”
Olaf had opened Maria’s bag and was pulling out his clothes. “Why were they trying to kidnap me?”
“I have some ideas,” Ellison said.
Maria bent down to help Olaf pull his shirt over his head. “We need to get him home.”
“But Ellison chased them off,” Olaf said, his rumpled head appearing through the shirt’s neckband. “He fought them with his wolf.” He growled again and punched the air, his shirtsleeves flailing. “And then Tiger came. It was awesome.”
Maria grabbed Olaf’s hands and thrust them inside the sleeves. “Home. Now.”
She tried to berate herself for stopping to kiss Ellison instead of taking Olaf to safety, but the imprint of Ellison’s lips remained on hers. The kiss had opened something inside her,
as did the smile Ellison sent her now as he caught Olaf’s other hand.
What had started to open, Maria never wanted to close again.
***
“You got the license number, then?” Dylan Morrissey, who showed his nearly three hundred years of age only by the gray-flecked hair at his temples, gave Ellison his powerful alpha stare.
Dylan was no longer leader of Shiftertown, but he was still one of the strongest Shifters around. As Lupine, Ellison should go into intense defensive mode under Dylan’s questioning, but because the Morrisseys had accepted Ellison as friend long ago, and because Ellison worked for Liam as a tracker—bodyguard, investigator, enforcer—Dylan was going easy on him. Ellison pushed his instincts aside and answered.
“License plate number, make of the car, description of the guys. It’s all in here.” Ellison tapped his head. “Tiger saw them too, but he was in killer mode, so who knows what he remembers.”
“Tiger and Ellison kicked butt,” Olaf said.
Olaf remained at Dylan and Sean’s house. Maria, once she’d heard the full story, insisted that the cub shouldn’t go home until Ronan could be there to take care of him. Ronan, alerted by Ellison, was on his way, and he agreed Olaf should stay at Dylan’s, one of the safest houses in Shiftertown, until he arrived.
Maria played with snap-together blocks with Olaf, the kid building some kind of robot monster with it. From a movie, but Ellison didn’t know which one. The only movies Ellison watched were Westerns. The remake of 3:10 to Yuma was his current favorite, even though it wasn’t set in Texas.
Maria’s black braid was mussed from Ellison working his fingers through it. He could still feel the amazing heavy silk of her hair, that and the taste of her. Honey, sweetness, fire. Maria.
She was resilient, protective, defiant, and soft all at the same time. Like a rose—fragile but tough.
Maria helped Olaf build the robot with confident hands. She’d seen the movie, because Maria watched every movie and TV show she could, and read every book she could get her hands on. To learn English, she said. She already spoke better than some Shifters who’d come to America twenty years ago.